2021 NBA Playoffs Gamethread

terrynever

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Good thing Philly didn’t get Harden from Houston back in December. Simmons and a couple first-rounders for a hamstring symphony.
 

johnmd20

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The Nets are so loathsome I really don’t know how anyone can root for them.

If you remove Joe Harris (and Bruce Brown and Claxton but those are fairly deep rotation guys) who is their most likable player? I think it honestly might be James Harden which is.....just wow
They have three of the least likable players in the game. It's so easy to hate the Nets and I really hope they don't win.

But they are really good, obviously. Their talent is ridiculous, they have 3 first ballot hall of famers on their team. (not including the washed up guys who also might make the hall)
 

Fishy1

Head Mason
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Nov 10, 2006
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The Bucks might be saved by the number of minutes Nash has had to play Durant, Kyrie, and Griffin.

Kyrie played 45 minutes last night, Durant played 40, and Griffin gave them 35. Playing them is, of course, a necessity: Nash doesn't have a choice. Almost every team, except maybe the Bucks, is asking their best players to go 40+ minutes in the playoffs.

I'm not saying another one of them will go down, but the more minutes they play, the higher the likelihood is that they do. Harden was the most durable of the group, and he's reaggravated his hamstring, so forget about him. The remaining three have substantial and serious injury histories, and Durant and Griffin are on the wrong side of 30, and all have been sidelined this year. And if it's Durant, there's a possibility that Kyrie just disappears on you. Like figuratively his effort disappears, and literally, he might leave the team, as he has done before.

Leaving Blake Griffin holding the bag, and feeling a sub-acute shame about doing the same to the Pistons. ;)

Bud got a lot of heat last night for failing to play his guys 40 minutes -- and he should have -- but I think the bench plays less going forward. Even with the Bucks losing game 1, I think the wheels will fall off for the Nets in this round or the next.
 

Kliq

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The first Bucks vs Nets game is a highlight for the fragility of NBA offense in the three point era. One team made a lot of their three pointers, the other team did not make many of their three pointers. The talent of the respective teams and the strategy come second to the more arbitrary fact that the team that makes more threes generally wins the game.
 

johnmd20

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The first Bucks vs Nets game is a highlight for the fragility of NBA offense in the three point era. One team made a lot of their three pointers, the other team did not make many of their three pointers. The talent of the respective teams and the strategy come second to the more arbitrary fact that the team that makes more threes generally wins the game.
So what you're saying is that the team who scores more points wins?

Like, this is the same as the NHL where sometimes the puck bounces your way and sometimes it doesn't. You still have to actually hit the three pointers.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Coach Bud is gone if they lose this series, right? That would three disappointing playoff performances in a row.
Hmmmmmm



The Bucks might be saved by the number of minutes Nash has had to play Durant, Kyrie, and Griffin.

Kyrie played 45 minutes last night, Durant played 40, and Griffin gave them 35. Playing them is, of course, a necessity: Nash doesn't have a choice. Almost every team, except maybe the Bucks, is asking their best players to go 40+ minutes in the playoffs.

I'm not saying another one of them will go down, but the more minutes they play, the higher the likelihood is that they do. Harden was the most durable of the group, and he's reaggravated his hamstring, so forget about him. The remaining three have substantial and serious injury histories, and Durant and Griffin are on the wrong side of 30, and all have been sidelined this year. And if it's Durant, there's a possibility that Kyrie just disappears on you. Like figuratively his effort disappears, and literally, he might leave the team, as he has done before.

Leaving Blake Griffin holding the bag, and feeling a sub-acute shame about doing the same to the Pistons. ;)

Bud got a lot of heat last night for failing to play his guys 40 minutes -- and he should have -- but I think the bench plays less going forward. Even with the Bucks losing game 1, I think the wheels will fall off for the Nets in this round or the next.
Extra minutes in the playoffs don’t really play a factor. Both teams stars are playing nearly the entire game so there isn’t a rest advantage and even if there was it is offset by the day(s) off between games. Nothingburger here.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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They have three of the least likable players in the game. It's so easy to hate the Nets and I really hope they don't win.

But they are really good, obviously. Their talent is ridiculous, they have 3 first ballot hall of famers on their team. (not including the washed up guys who also might make the hall)
I would have liked to see BOS play BRK without Harden. Too bad BOS couldn't have figured out how to get out of the 7th seed.
 

HomeRunBaker

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I would have liked to see BOS play BRK without Harden. Too bad BOS couldn't have figured out how to get out of the 7th seed.
Am I the only who doesn’t feel losing Harden OR Kyrie is a big deal? So the other, along with Durant, gets more touches while they fill the other guard spot with a much better defensive player(s).
 

Humphrey

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To say Milwaukee played an incredibly stupid game would be an understatement. With very little effort from Brooklyn to force it, just all jumpshots. Every play design, every fastbreak, any momentum building moments, just letting in fly.
Very 2020-21 Celtic esque.
 

cheech13

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Jan 5, 2006
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Am I the only who doesn’t feel losing Harden OR Kyrie is a big deal? So the other, along with Durant, gets more touches while they fill the other guard spot with a much better defensive player(s).
This is where I’m at as well. The thing about having three elite players is that even if one is out you still have the other two that will dwarf most team’s top end talent.
 

Cellar-Door

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My big takeaway from the Nets/Bucks game was.... sure the Bucks didn't shoot well and that will likely improve...... yes Blake shot well....
But they also didn't even make the Nets work that hard to create good shots, Joe Harris was getting open 3s Kyrie and Durant were getting where they wanted.

MIL's chance to win this series increases with Harden out, but they still need to shoot decently from 3 and play tough D, they did neither last night.
 

Fishy1

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Extra minutes in the playoffs don’t really play a factor. Both teams stars are playing nearly the entire game so there isn’t a rest advantage and even if there was it is offset by the day(s) off between games. Nothingburger here.
Play a factor in what? I wasn't talking about a "rest advantage" at all.

My point was not the Nets would not be able to play well, but that they're vulnerable to injuries, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them bow out early because they lose another star. I sometimes wonder if you actually read my posts before responding! ;)

Am I the only who doesn’t feel losing Harden OR Kyrie is a big deal? So the other, along with Durant, gets more touches while they fill the other guard spot with a much better defensive player(s).
That's true, that's not the end of the world, as you said, as the shots can be redistributed to a degee, and that's how they managed to stay at the top of the division most of the year, but the point is that they've been lucky so far that their injuries haven't overlapped, and the healthiest one of the bunch has already gone down, along with one of their best bench players, and it's only the beginning of only the second round. That leaves two guys on legs that are basically stilts at this point and one guy who's a headcase who has missed part or all of the playoffs three times in the last five or six years.

I decided to dig in a little and waste my Sunday afternoon to see if there were any studies:

The number of injuries that occurred in back-to-back games was 158 out of 681 total game injuries (23.2%). There were 368 cases (54.0%) of injuries that occurred in away games. In most game injuries, players had played two games (183 players, 26.9%) or three games (445 players, 65.4%) in the past five days before injury; whereas, the remaining 35 (5.1%) and 18 (2.6%) players had played one game and four games in five days, respectively.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445097/

So the playoffs, as much as they might increase the number of times players get 3 days off, absolutely fit the criteria for 25% of injuries: game six will feature 2 games in five days. And guess what: the period leading up to Harden's injury featured 2 games in five days. Game seven will include four games in a week and will also meet the 2 games in 5 days criteria.

All I'm saying is, it's true, there's no crazy back-to-backs, and that the increased risk helps, but it doesn't make them immune to aging or the increased intensity of playoff games. These guys are already fragile, and playing when you're tired and old, as many of us can probably attest to, increases your likelihood for injury.
 

terrynever

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Was it bad Philly defense in first half or Trae and others on fire?
Good question. Philly put on some great pressure early, deflecting balls that went right back to Atlanta. Then they started leaving shooters open in both corners. And then Trae got hot. Philly not shooting well. Turnovers were a huge Philly problem.

We’ve all seen NBA series open with a strange game. Game 2 is more revealing. If Philly keeps leaving shooters open, it is in trouble.
 

Ale Xander

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Would Atlanta match up well with the Nets? Hypothetical question. Not sure who to root for.
 

lovegtm

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That's an obvious non-foul on Thybulle; Young changed his line to run into him.

How are officials so awful at this even with slow motion?
 

terrynever

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76ers will lose this game but we got to see the way they never quit. Flawed team with a lot of heart.